When Haggar gets drunk
by White Angel of Auralon
Summary: Witch Haggar has created many robeasts to help King Zarkon to finally conquer Planet Arus. But the Voltron Force always managed to foil her plans. After another punishment for failure, she gets drunk to forget her misery. The results couldn't have been expected and go very different to what she might have had in mind.


**Hi everybody. This one-shot was caused when I read a story where some drunken hijinks took place. Then I thought it would be funny if Haggar was the one that was drunk and caused it unintentionally.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Voltron, just this story.**

 **Happy reading.**

* * *

 **When Haggar Gets Drunk**

It didn't start out as anything special. But for the universe it would become the day when one of the greatest 'What-The-Hell' moments of history took place. A moment, which would cause waves far into the future. Something that hadn't been intended by the one causing it. The site of everything was, as so often for peculiar events in recent times, Planet Arus in the Diamond Galaxy. The planet, ever since the Voltron Force had arrived and managed to reactivate the powerful robot Voltron, had been in the centre of the resistance against Planet Doom under the rulership of the tyrannical King Zarkon. Said king, thanks to his ruthlessness and the powerful magic of Witch Haggar, had conquered many planets. But against Voltron, even her magic hadn't managed to bring him the desired full victory.

The witch had managed to split the mighty robot into five mechanical lions by disguising herself as a beautiful goddess. Arus had then been attacked in full force by Planet Doom, their infrastructure, their high technology, their defence systems, everything was destroyed in the merciless attack waves. Zarkon took as many slaves from the planet as he could, only some survivors managed to flee into the mountains, to hide in some caves there. It was a horrible time for the planet, but after some years of Planet Arus being incapable of resisting in any way, years during which Zarkon believed the planet utterly defeated, five space explorers from Earth, sent by the Galaxy Alliance, had come to find out if Voltron was still useable. Doom had captured them before they could reach Planet Arus, but they, as the first ones ever, managed to break out of Zarkon's prison before they could be killed in the arena. They had made it to Arus and had ever since then, as they found the robot and the surviving princess of Arus, been a huge thorn in Zarkon's side.

And after months and then years of failures, caused by many commanders, Haggar and even his son Prince Lotor, Zarkon was really angry about the loss of his hard-earned reputation. He had punished the ones he considered idiots severely. Which led to the current situation. Haggar, simply because she felt it was her right to drown her misery in alcohol, had drunk much more than she normally did. She was no lightweight and regularly consumed good wine at the dinners at the palace of Doom, but tonight she went for something stronger. It was a high percentage liquor from a planet that had been enslaved a decade ago. She drunk until she didn't feel the sting of disappointment anymore. And then, she felt it was a grand idea at the time, she decided to create a new beastie that would cause havoc on Planet Arus and get Zarkon to take her back into his favour.

* * *

It was night on Planet Arus, when Haggar's drunk-created new beasties, she had had too many 'great ideas' to manage with one beast, were sneaked in there. Haggar had remembered that the people on Arus rarely suspected cute and small creatures to be evil, which she wanted to exploit. Hence why, while still being completely drunk, she left her beasties in several places before returning to Doom. It was a good thing that the space coffins that she used for travelling could be programmed with their destinations, otherwise she would have had crashed into something. Though, due to the amounts of alcohol she had drunk, she didn't remember anything of that when she woke up the next day, instead she had to deal with a horrible hangover, which let her decide to never drink that much again. It would hold until the next huge failure, when Zarkon punished her.

On Planet Arus, the people didn't know anything about Haggar's little creations. And when they found them, they wouldn't suspect them to be evil. In fact, Haggar's beasties looked like somebody had crossed cute little bunnies with canaries and sunflowers. They had fluffy, round bodies, somewhat elongated heads with long fluffy ears, two fluffy wings, were canary yellow and their eyes had sunflower-like petal marks around them. Their faces matched the adorable animal perception of most humans, which Haggar had intended for her plan.

Though beyond that, her ideas of how to hinder the Voltron Force, demands of Prince Lotor, how previous plans had failed and how she wanted to prevent it this time got really jumbled around and created beings that weren't the ultimate evil weapon she wanted to create. The first ones were noticed sitting in flower beds, before they flew up with their fluffy wings and landed on shoulders of people passing by, cuddling with them when they did so. Nobody worried about it, as they also spread the feeling of it being perfectly normal for them to do that and that they didn't pose any danger whatsoever.

Things got interesting when the people met somebody of the opposite gender though, as Princess Allura was going to find out soon.

* * *

Allura was riding back to the Castle of Lions, accompanied by Keith, the Commander of the Voltron Force, who was also her secret crush. Allura had wanted to buy some special items for Nanny's birthday, which was coming up in two weeks, and today was the only day she could fit it into her full schedule. Normally, she would have had more people present guarding her, but, which she considered luck, but Keith thought was dangerous, the guards she would have taken with her had been needed for a problem with the weapons storage rooms.

She hadn't asked for more details, as she knew that others took care of that inside the castle, but she had urged Keith to still allow her to buy the items, as she otherwise wouldn't manage, and she wanted the present she was working on to be a real surprise for Nanny, which it wouldn't be if she tasked one of the maids with it. Then Nanny would see her shopping list, as she always controlled what the maids were asked to buy on top of the lists she wrote. Keith had thankfully relented under the condition that he himself would accompany her, and she would listen if he gave her an order concerning security concerns, which she had eagerly agreed to. Hey, it was a chance to be alone with him, which didn't happen often.

Normally, Nanny was very intent to keep her from any young man who wasn't a prince. Especially her Voltron Force teammates. She believed that the boys corrupted the Princess of Arus.

They were riding at a slow gait, as Allura didn't want to risk breaking some of the breakable items she had stored in her horse's saddlebags. While the shop assistant had wrapped them carefully in soft material plus a hard case, she didn't believe it would be good to risk anything when it wasn't necessary. Keith had accepted her reasoning. It would be a waste if the items she had bought would break for no reason. If they had to get away from an attack, it would be different but if there wasn't a reason, well, they had cleared the afternoon for this shopping trip and were only expected back at the castle for dinner.

"I'm glad I got everything I need. Thank you again, for accompanying me, Keith," addressed Allura her handsome protector.

"You're welcome. But what are you making for Nanny?" he asked curiously.

"It's something of a tradition on Planet Arus," started Allura her explanation, "As you know, I turned twenty this year, which marks the age at which children are left fully out of parental or other guardianship obligations on Arus. We come of age at eighteen, like on other planets, but traditionally, a young adult will still adhere to the guidance and advice of a parent or guardian for two more years. As I don't have parents anymore, Coran and Nanny have more or less taken up their roles for me, though Coran more than Nanny, as he raised me while we were in hiding and Nanny didn't live at the castle during those years."

Keith nodded at that, knowing about that part of her life.

"During the birthday celebrations of the guardians or parents in the year the young adult reaches his or her twentieth birthday, the young adult traditionally presents the parental figure with a special present, to thank them for all their help during their life. It doesn't mean that there won't be any connection between them anymore, but in my case, Coran and Nanny will step back and I'm going to be allowed to make my own decisions, even if they will still advise me in concerns of ruling the planet where needed. There are a few traditional presents that were given on Arus during these special birthdays. And you know how much Nanny loves traditions."

"Very true. I think it is a very nice custom, Princess. And thankfully we could find everything easily," nodded Keith, gaining a smile for his words.

"Yes. It's wonderful that the people have recovered enough to set up their own shops again. It shows that our work to rebuild the planet and make it safer again is successful," mentioned Allura.

"So, you are using the items you bought to make Nanny's present. What are you going to make?" asked Keith, being curious about Arusian customs.

"Well, one thing that is traditionally given to women over fifty, which Nanny is, is a tea service with the cups and pot being decorated with special paint. The painted patterns are said to promote the health properties of the tea used with them. I don't know if that is true, but it is an old tradition. Together with the tea service, you normally gift certain kinds of tea and biscuits, which I believe are the truly healthy part," she giggled.

Keith smiled at her enthusiasm. He might not show it openly, but he was very attracted to her. The problem was, he wasn't a prince and he had heard Nanny's lectures about Allura having to marry a prince often enough to know that he didn't have a chance. Thus, he never pursued his feelings, knowing his heart would be broken when she had to marry for the good of her people. It would hurt less if he kept his distance instead of trying to have something that couldn't be. But he also couldn't find another woman to take his mind of her. He had seen how his other teammates, especially Hunk and Lance, had found girlfriends and were very happy. But no woman could compare to Allura in his eyes. He knew it wasn't healthy for him, but he couldn't change what his heart wanted. No matter what his mind said about it.

"Now I only need to find some flowers, which I want to use as the model for my paintings. As I got the tea service, the tea and ingredients for the biscuits as well as the paint today, I can get started on the present. Thankfully, the tea service only has four cups next to the pot and two small bowls. Otherwise it would have been difficult to get everything into my saddlebags."

"What kind of flowers are you looking for?" asked Keith.

"I know that Nanny loves any pink and purple flowers, so they will be the ones I plan on using as the main patterns on the pot. For the cups, I will mainly use green vine patterns with small colour dots," answered Allura.

"Sounds pretty," nodded Keith.

They continued until Allura pointed to a patch of flowers, some of them light pink and purple.

"Those look great. Do you mind if we stop so that I can pick some to serve as models for me?" she asked.

"Sure, we can stop so that you can pick some of them," nodded Keith, not seeing any reason to not stop for the flowers.

They were the only two people around, it was a nice day and there was no sign of enemy activity. And this wouldn't cost them much time. They climbed off their horses and Keith took over the reigns of Allura's horse, to allow her to pick the flowers she wanted. Though while she was picking them, he suddenly felt a light weight on his shoulder. He looked over and saw something yellow sitting there, something that felt fluffy and was seemingly cuddling with the side of his face.

"Huh?" He put the reigns of both horses into his left hand to have his right free to pick up whatever animal had landed on his shoulder. What he found was a very cute little animal that reminded him of a bunny in bird size with wings, "What kind of animal are you, little one?"

"Keith?" asked Allura, who had heard him.

"Seems like I didn't know all animals from your database yet," replied Keith.

The little animal sat peacefully on his open palm while he inspected it, tilting its head to the side while he did so. What Keith didn't notice was that the flower patterns around its eyes had a hypnotic effect on him. Allura walked over and squealed a little in delight at the cute animal.

"It's so cute," she exclaimed, which made the animal look at her too, causing the same hypnotic effect.

Then something neither would have considered normal, if they hadn't already been hypnotised, happened. The animal duplicated and one of them returned to Keith's shoulder and one flew over to Allura's. Once there, they glowed, which transferred to Keith and Allura, before the glow stopped. Both animals cuddled with the human on who's shoulder they were perched, which made Allura giggle a bit from the effect the fur had on her skin. Keith smiled and softly scratched the little animal under the chin, which it seemed to like.

"I hope your mice won't dislike our new little friends," commented Keith.

"I'm sure they will be happy to meet them and become friends too," assured Allura.

"Probably you're right, the mice are normally very friendly animals. Except it concerns Haggar's cat, but that is more than understandable."

"Yes, that cat is just evil," nodded Allura, "I think if I pick a few more flowers, I will have enough of them."

"Just take your time. We aren't expected back for another hour. And the weather is too nice to not enjoy it," suggested Keith.

"I like that idea, Keith," agreed Allura and continued picking flowers, while Keith watched her, enjoying the view.

The two animals stayed on their shoulders, making soft, soothing noises from time to time, and cuddled whenever they could. They were really friendly.

* * *

Like Allura had predicted, the mice were happy to greet new friends and could soon be seen playing around with the bunnaries, which was what Keith had jokingly called them, but the name stuck. The friendship of the mice was ensured when the bunnaries helped with nicking some cheese for them from the kitchen without Nanny or any others noticing anything. Others also fell under the charm of the cute fluffballs and everybody simply considered the animals a nice addition to the castle.

What nobody consciously realised was that the two bunnaries that had come with Allura and Keith multiplied whenever they found a pair of opposite gender that was somewhat close to each other in age walking around. Not to mention had some kind of positive feelings for each other. And they always repeated the glowing incident, which no human ever noticed. The mice did, but they felt that it wasn't a bad thing but a good one, thus they never alerted Allura to it. It might also have to do with their new friends communicating that they wanted to make the humans happy, for which the mice were always up to.

* * *

Keith felt strange. As if he was missing something. He just didn't know what it could be. It hadn't been there during the day, when he performed his patrol with the lions with the other four. During dinner with his friends he also felt perfectly normal, but now, when he was ready to go to bed, it truly bothered him. After about half an hour of trying to fall asleep, he gave up and decided to take a walk around the castle to calm down again. Perhaps he had eaten something that was heavy in his stomach and walking normally helped with it. He took out a t-shirt, his training suit pants and trainers, not wanting to wear his normal suit, and switched into those. He left his room and after locking it he took off. While walking, he didn't really notice where his feet stirred him. He didn't have a real destination in mind after all, hence he didn't really wonder.

He reached the door that led to the palace gardens and decided that fresh air might help him get tired enough to sleep. He exited the castle and enjoyed the cool night air. Deciding that a walk to the near lake would work out perfectly for him, he directed his steps there. The sight was great. It was a full moon night and the reflected moonlight on the water surface was very pretty. He watched for a while, noticing some glow-worms dancing on the surface, when he heard steps behind him, and turned around. He was surprised to see her here.

"Princess, what are you doing out here?" he asked.

"I couldn't sleep and thought that taking a walk would be nice. Then I saw the reflection of the full moon on the water of the lake from a window and wanted to see it from close-up. Therefore, I decided to come here. I didn't expect you to be here, even if I'm not sorry to see you, Keith," she explained.

"I couldn't sleep either. Strange coincidence," he commented.

"It is," she nodded and walked up to him.

He couldn't help but smile. She was just wearing a morning robe over her nightgown, which, due to the warm weather of the season, was much shorter than the normal, long one that Nanny normally insisted she wore to bed. After all, a princess had to look proper all the time. He wouldn't complain, as it gave him a nice view on her slender legs. The nightgown only reached to the middle of her upper legs, not her ankles. And she hadn't closed the morning robe, just thrown it over her shoulders which allowed him some sight of her cleavage. It was still a decent nightgown, not too revealing, but compared to what Allura normally wore, it showed a lot more.

Neither of the two noticed the two bunnaries that had come with them from the forest hiding between the grass, eyes glowing and concentrated on the couple at the shore of the lake. Nor would they find out before the end of the week that they weren't the only ones that had the problem of sleeping. They talked about all kinds of things, including their favourite food, Keith told her about movies he had seen as a child, she told a story about a trip to an amusement park with her parents, for which they all had worn disguises to just make a family day out of it, without being recognised as the royal family. They had a good time and didn't even notice that they were seeking physical contact with the other more and more.

Everything was still innocent, like her taking his hand to take him to show him something, or him steading her on a slippery part of the shore. They also had a little fun trying to skip stones on the water surface, but due to only the moon lighting the night, they couldn't really count how many times they managed. Keith also had to first show Allura how to do it, another time he held her to demonstrate the movements.

When Keith escorted Allura back to her room, he was a gentleman after all, she said goodbye to him by kissing him on the cheek, thanking him for a wonderful evening and telling him that she would now be able to have a good night's sleep. He was also very happy, and his dreams were sweet, being visited by his princess. His previous concerns about the difference in their status were pushed far to the back of his mind.

* * *

Keith and Allura somehow spent much time together during the following two weeks. Be it that Allura joined Keith during his time having a shift at Castle Control, bringing him some coffee, which he appreciated a lot, or that they took a walk somewhere. Most of the times that they took a walk they hadn't really planned anything like that. It just seemed to be the best idea at the time. One evening, after Allura had convinced Keith that it would be fun, they used disguises, Keith insisted on that part, to go to the nearest town, where a small festival was held. It was for an Arusian holiday and Allura had wanted to see it all day, but Nanny had protested, claiming she had way too much work to do. Keith, falling prey to her big, blue eyes and the look in them when she said 'please', had caved in, but decided that with the disguises they wouldn't be recognised, thus making the whole thing much safer.

And, as there were some booths that offered simple games with prizes to be won, mostly simple things that the booth owners had made themselves, as there wasn't much of a real industry yet on the planet, he tried his hand at some like throwing rings on targets or balls on wooden bottles to bring down a tower of nine bottles. He managed to win a small bag of candy for Allura, which she was very happy about, as it were some of her favourites, which Nanny rarely let her have, insisting that she had to look out for her figure. Keith didn't share Nanny's concerns for Allura's figure, he thought she looked perfect.

Being too busy with their activities, neither noticed that they weren't the only ones that spent a lot of time alone, as a couple, even if both wouldn't call themselves that. They hadn't noticed how other visitors of the festival had given them looks of seeing a happy young couple out for an evening of innocent fun.

* * *

Coran listened to the report of Lance, who seemed to be a bit embarrassed.

"Wait, you mean to tell me that about half of our guard force from last night left their positions and later on returned after meeting with some romantic partners for at least an hour?" asked Coran disbelieving.

"I know it sounds stupid, Coran. But it is like it is. And they weren't the only ones out on dates. The others that weren't on duty were out too, but for them it was okay. I had a date myself, but I didn't have guard duty. You know that I have been seeing my girlfriend for nearly nine months now. When I questioned the ones on duty, they reported, and that means every single one of them, that they felt compelled to seek out their partners. They resisted for at most two hours before the urge became too strong for them to fight. After they had spent some time with the ones they love, they had no problem returning to their positions again."

"That sounds as if Haggar is up to something again. Even if the method doesn't suit her normal ways of causing chaos, which Lotor or Zarkon would then exploit for attacks," commented Coran.

"I thought the same. Something is going on, Coran, and it seems to have caught everybody between the ages of sixteen and fifty at the castle. I asked around, and my girlfriend did too. We have a one hundred percent confirmed rate of couples being formed among those that were questioned. Klia also managed to find out for me that those that had been couples for a while, always have slept with their partners when they were together at night. This isn't a coincidence and I believe that the others that haven't got that far yet will follow as soon as they feel comfortable with their partners," explained Lance.

"But that age bracket would include Princess Allura!" exclaimed Coran, horrified.

"I couldn't check with her yet, but I didn't hear any rumours about her being with somebody. That could mean though that she and her date were especially careful to not be noticed," pointed Lance out.

"We need to find out for sure. She is the princess, she can't just go on dates with a man," protested Coran, "If you are right and this always goes on to the couple becoming intimate, oh, dear, we have a big problem. Arusian law states that if a child is conceived between a couple, except one part was raped, they have to marry immediately. And due to finances being tight, we don't have any contraceptive medicine stocked. Which means, we will get a baby boom."

"Well, then we better figure out fast if our dear princess found herself a lover as well. Though, if we are right and this is Haggar's work, even if the style doesn't match her normal one, you can't punish the guy or Princess Allura. This compulsion is too strong for anybody to resist. Not that most would want to. And, if I may point out, a baby boom is just what Arus needs to recover the population size," stated Lance, "The one thing Haggar would achieve with this was that in nine months we would be very busy with children being born everywhere, which would then open our defences. But with it being that far away, we could easily arrange things to not come to bite us. And we might have a few problems with work in the castle not getting done fully anymore, once the young mothers have to go on baby break. But it wouldn't be fast enough for Haggar's normal schemes. They aren't planned that far ahead."

Coran looked at him in shock but had to admit that the younger man had a point. More citizens of Arus would be a good thing. Just not a baby from the princess while she wasn't married to a prince yet.

* * *

Allura sat inside her office, reading some material she had to go over for the distribution of supplies for the rebuilt cities. Money was tight on her planet and to fairly supply all cities, she needed to be aware of all factors, like age structure of the people living there, number of inhabitants, natural resources close by and so on. When she had worked for an hour, the door to her office opened and Keith entered, holding two cups of coffee in his hands.

"Hey, I though you might like some coffee to take a small break from your work," he told her.

"Thank you, that's a great idea," she agreed and took the cup he handed her happily. After taking a sip, she sighed contently, "It's perfect, much milk and a little sugar."

"I watched often enough how you like your coffee, Allura," commented Keith with a grin, "And, how does the work go?"

"Well enough, even if I wish I could give out more supplies. But the situation is lots better than even two years ago. I hope that the fruit harvest that will start soon will bring a rich result. Thanks to the number of attacks lessening, probably because Zarkon has decided to not waste too much money onto Lotor's missions of conquering Arus anymore, as the results don't justify it, the farms have been left alone long enough for berries and other fruits to grow. And thankfully, the fruit farms weren't high priority targets in the attacks that defeated Arus originally. The fields with corn also appear to be doing well. We just have to ensure that should an attack take place, we head the robeast and starfighters off to places where they don't cause damage to the landscape," explained Allura.

"True. Thankfully, the area around the castle doesn't hold any farms, and the first attacks normally take place here," nodded Keith.

He took a seat and they talked a bit more, until Allura had finished her coffee.

"I better get back to work too. Remember, patrol starts half an hour earlier today, Allura."

"Don't worry, I'll be on time, Keith," she smiled at him and he took her cup with him when he left her to continue her work.

* * *

Lance and Coran entered the corridor to Allura's office when they spotted Keith leaving the office with two cups in his hands.

"Hey, Keith!" called Lance out and Keith stopped.

"Hey, Lance and Coran. Did anything happen?" asked Keith, reading the looks on their faces correctly.

"You could say that," nodded Lance and explained to Keith what he and Coran had worked out.

"That is indeed concerning, but Allura seemed alright when I talked to her over coffee break. She didn't mention anybody she wanted to see. And if you are right with your deductions, she would have felt the need to see him if she wasn't in his company for too long," pondered Keith.

Lance though had a thoughtful look on his face.

"What about you? You fall into the age bracket that we worked out too. I know you weren't on guard duty last night, so, did you have a date?" asked Lance bluntly.

"No, I didn't. Though I recently seem to have trouble falling asleep and go on walks to help me with that. And I'm not the only one. Allura told me that she noticed it too, and that taking a walk within the safe locations inside and outside the castle helps her. Last night, well, I was at the recreation room with Allura and showed her how to play poker. I had mentioned it when we talked about all kinds of things and she was curious how to play and wanted to learn. That's why we agreed to meet after dinner. Hunk and Pidge were there too at the beginning, but they left, saying they had dates after about an hour," explained Keith.

"How long were you there, Keith?" asked Coran.

"I'm not totally sure, but I would guess until shortly after midnight. We had fun and somewhat lost track of time. When we noticed how late it was, I escorted her back to her room and then went to bed."

"Thank goodness, I worried she had been sneaking out to meet with a man, like most other women inside the castle do," sighed Coran.

Lance was still thoughtful.

"Did you and the princess arrange to meet for coffee break? You normally don't, do you?" asked Lance.

"Normally we don't, no, but I thought she would need some coffee after the long evening yesterday, so I wanted to do something nice for her," shrugged Keith.

Lance nodded.

"I have to get back to my work. Remember that our patrol today is half an hour earlier, Lance," pointed Keith out.

"Don't worry, I have marked it down on my schedule," nodded Lance.

"Keep me updated on how your investigations go, will you, Lance? I would help, but I already drown in work and I know you will competently deal with this. Not to mention that your information network concerning gossip is much better than mine," asked Keith.

"I will," confirmed Lance, and Keith left towards the kitchen to put back the cups.

"I'm relieved that the princess seems to have been spared that compulsion," sighed Coran in relief.

"She wasn't, but let's talk about it where we won't be overheard," declared Lance seriously.

Coran looked at Lance in alarm but followed him towards the office Lance used for his work. As Keith's right hand, he had a lot of work for himself, including the organisation of the castle's guards. He motioned Coran to take a seat before sitting down himself.

"So, what do you mean, Princess Allura wasn't spared? And why do you believe that?" asked Coran alarmed, "We haven't even talked to her about it."

"I got enough from what Keith told us. First, can you remember that Keith ever went out of his way to deliver coffee to Princess Allura?" asked Lance.

"No, but as he said, they were up late yesterday, and he wanted to do something nice for her. Coffee would help her being more awake for her work, which is something Keith considers important."

"True, but my second observation, did you notice that he never used the Princess's title? He just called her Allura. That doesn't fit in with his normal code of conduct. Third, the symptoms that Keith described about having trouble falling asleep match what I heard about the others that met with their partners after hours, at least those that didn't have dates already. And fourth, he insinuated that he had met with the Princess while she had trouble sleeping. He didn't outright say it, but I could deduct it."

"You don't want to say," Coran seemed to understand.

"I believe that Keith and Princess Allura are progressing towards becoming a couple. I know that Princess Allura has a major crush on Keith and he can barely keep his own feelings for her suppressed. Normally, he wouldn't act on them, knowing about her position and duty. But this compulsion is strong, as we already found out. The guards we have at the castle have always been reliable until this strange effect was noticed. They wouldn't leave their posts for a date normally. They would simply, if they really wanted to see their partners, arrange for a time once their guard duty was over to have a proper date.

"You also wouldn't know it, but poker isn't one of Keith's favourite games. For him to spend hours teaching Princess Allura how to play it, something big has to be going on," revealed Lance.

"We must put a stop to it," stated Coran.

"And how? We have no idea what causes this. And as you saw, Keith behaved normal. If I weren't his best friend and knew him very well, I wouldn't have noticed anything. Hell, he doesn't know that it is happening. He doesn't consider their meetings dates yet. We also can't lock either of them up. That only caused something close to physical pain to the ones being locked up. The first guards that I caught, when I was on the way to my date, I sent to the holding cells in the basement, to cool their heads, but the surveillance cameras show that it is a very bad idea. We need both Keith and Allura fit for duty, in case of an attack. And if this compulsion to date goes back to Haggar, an attack is probably in the planning already," pointed Lance out.

"But she mustn't be involved with any man, not even one as honourable as Keith. The law states she has to marry a prince."

"We can't stop this at the source, before we know what we are dealing with. The two of them also know better than going too far. What we need to do is preventing that this causes damage to Princess Allura's reputation. So far, it seems that for them it is enough to spend time together. We will watch. I suggest you go down to the crypt and ask King Alfor's ghost if he has an idea how to stop the effect. If he doesn't, maybe he has information that can help us circumvent a scandal," shrugged Lance.

Both were very surprised when said ghost appeared in front of them.

"King Alfor!" exclaimed Coran surprised.

"Coran, Lance, I heard what you talked about and I know about the situation. Sadly, as it wasn't evil magic causing this, but something else, there isn't a counter. What I could determine when I recently visited my daughter, to make sure she was doing well, is that a soul bond is forming."

"An actual soul bond?" asked Land in awe.

"You are forming one as well, Lance, though yours seems to be further in its development than my daughter's with Keith is," pointed the king out.

"But aren't soul bonds very rare, your majesty?" asked Coran.

"Normally, you would be right, Coran, but I feel that all over planet Arus these bonds are created. Something seems to connect couples in love. I can't find the source of the effect though. It escapes my powers. It isn't one source either. It seems to originate from many places. The reason why the people can't stay away from their romantic partners is this developing soul bond. While the bond solidifies, they need closeness to each other. Once the bond is finished, that need will lessen again. But the couples will all want to marry before long. You better inform all the priests that we can expect a wave of weddings on Arus. A truly happy development. And soul bonded couples will have a lot of children, which will bring back Arus' population to where it should be faster than normally," explained King Alfor, "Therefore, you also need to train people, including men, how to be midwifes for the pregnant women that will start having children in about eight to ten months' time."

"But Princess Allura has to marry a prince," protested Coran.

"Not if a soul bond is involved, Coran. And honestly, this is a lucky development for our planet. Keith is very valuable for us, as are the other pilots of the Voltron Force. Lance, let me guess, you have been thinking about formalising your relationship with your girlfriend," asked King Alfor.

"I did, your majesty. I have been together with her for nine months now and for the last week or so, I have thought about finding a good opportunity to propose to Klia," confirmed Lance in surprise.

"I believe that it is similar for Hunk, who also has been in a relationship for a while, and Pidge got a lot closer to his new girlfriend. If you all marry Arusian women over time, you would want to stay here, right?"

Lance nodded and saw where the king was going with his line of thinking.

"We would ask Galaxy Garrison to be permanently transferred to Arus, simply because we feel at home here and our families are here. Not to mention that we are needed. Career prospects are also excellent, as with our experience and training, we are far ahead of any other military personnel on Arus. We would be ensured leading positions, which we normally wouldn't attain within the normal Alliance military any time soon," realised Lance.

"Correct, Lance. And considering how important Voltron is for the Alliance, as only thanks to Voltron Zarkon is stopped from expanding his territory even further, nobody would try transferring you elsewhere with all these points involved. If I had still been alive, I would have looked for something to keep you all here on Arus. We can't afford to lose any of you. Not even if you should manage to defeat Zarkon permanently. And Coran, I have no issues with my daughter being romantically involved with Keith. He has proven several times that he is more than worthy of her love. The only reason why they aren't married already is that he isn't a prince. Otherwise, he has all the qualities I would want my son-in-law to have," stated King Alfor.

Lance was honestly impressed. That was high praise from the dead king. Coran seemed to deflate as well.

"I agree, your majesty. Keith would have been at the top of my list of candidates for a possible husband for Princess Allura, had he just been a prince. If he were a noble, I would also have worked out a way to make it happen," admitted Coran.

"Then just let things happen naturally. You don't have to interfere at all. They will discover their feelings soon and then you can offer them to do things the right way any marry before anything that could besmirch my daughter's honour can take place. Though, you should see to it that you have a replacement pilot for the Blue Lion ready soon. Once this has happened, it won't take long until Allura is pregnant. And then she can't continue flying the lion anymore," pointed King Alfor out.

Coran nodded, and Lance thought he saw some sign of hope at the thought of an heir for the throne in his eyes. Well, he would have to badger Keith and Allura about being godfather to the baby. Who better than him after all?

* * *

It took two weeks until Keith and Allura became a formal couple. They had realised their feelings being very strong before, but Keith confessed his love and asked her to become his girlfriend after those two weeks. As they realised that it wouldn't do them any good to keep things from Coran, and they knew that there were lots of other couples that had come into being thanks to whatever magic had hit Arus, they were upfront with him about their decision to not deny their feelings for each other anymore. Coran, as he had some time to accept the situation, told them what King Alfor had told him and Lance. They were surprised that what they had was a real soul bond, but they were really happy about it.

While Nanny huffed a bit about Allura not marrying a prince, in the end, she relented and threw herself into the preparations for the royal wedding. She was also very touched about the self-painted tea service that Allura gave her for her birthday. Nanny had everything organised within two months. Keith and Allura kept their relationship mostly under wraps, as neither wanted to have Lotor storm to Arus in a temper tantrum, claiming that Allura was his bride, not Keith's. They took walks inside the castle gardens, went swimming together early in the morning when nearly nobody was awake and went about their days normally, though they ensured that they spent a lot of time together.

Thanks to knowing that all the couples inside the castle had soul bonds, Lance adjusted the guard schedules. Everybody was informed that they had been hit by some magic spell that created soul bonds for them and their partners. This way, they could take care of spending enough time with their significant others to not have the problem of feeling the urge to be with said partners at unwanted times. It was mainly a matter of organisation. The guard shifts in the evening were shortened to three hours per shift, as that was the limit anybody could restrain themselves from the magic compelling them to leave their post, but that was only for those that couldn't be with their partners during the day.

For most days, Nanny had found a very simple solution. Everybody that worked at the castle also ate there during the day. She had made a list of who was with whom and simply arranged for four shifts of eating. The couples would always have the same mealtime shift as their partners and that solved a lot of the problems that might have popped up. And, as had been predicted, there was a real wedding boom, followed by a pregnancy boom on Planet Arus. Once a couple was married, the compulsion was much less pronounced.

Nobody ever found out what had caused the soul bond magic, which stayed on planet Arus and continued 'infesting' new young couples, even visitors from other planets, but it should be mentioned that bunnaries became a very common sight on Planet Arus. Everybody loved them, and they became popular pets for children of all ages. They were cute, tame and loveable.

After Keith's and Allura's wedding and coronation, for which many of Keith's friends from the Space Academy had travelled there, including the second Voltron Force, the news of a new royal couple finally reached Planet Doom. Lotor, predictably raged at the 'injustice' of it all. He demanded from Haggar to figure out how the hell it could be that not only 'his' bride had married his enemy, but also how they couldn't know about the wedding frenzy on the planet. Haggar tried investigating on the planet, but for some reason she got sick very soon after arriving on the planet. The feeling was close to the bad hangover she had had some months ago. She felt herself weaken with every minute she spent on the planet. She had to leave before she was incapable of doing so anymore. That effect confused her greatly. It was as if she got sick from the positive magic the planet radiated.

Her robeast, which she had given Lotor to attack after she couldn't stand being on the planet more than a few minutes, surprisingly didn't fare any better. The Voltron Force, when they went out to fight it, was truly surprised to find the robeast looking as if it wanted to vomit all them time, and only needed to attack once with the blazing sword to destroy it. Zarkon wasn't happy at all to hear that Haggar seemed to have developed an allergy to Planet Arus of all things but resigned after five attempts that all ended in her robeasts being destroyed within a minute of being met by Voltron. At least they still worked on all other planets, but it stung that he wouldn't be able to bring Planet Arus under his rule anymore, as his supplier of robeasts failed to shield them against whatever was going on.

Allura and Keith soon could announce the, by those in the know, expected pregnancy of the new Arusian Queen. The people of Arus were very happy that they would soon have a new baby prince or princess. The queen and king were very beloved by the Arusians. Due to her pregnancy, Queen Allura had to retire from flying Blue Lion, but her replacement had been trained for a few months until it happened, therefore, nothing bad came of it. And Keith was also training Lance to take over Black Lion in the long run. Having to rule the planet took too much of his time to manage more than occasional training units, which wasn't good for the defence of the planet.

Lance also took care of training other reserve pilots to be ready in case of another attack. Though he suspected that, should anybody attack, it was more probable of it being the larger Drule Empire, than Zarkon. They had noticed the problems of her robeasts. The best idea they had was that the large number of soul bonds and the resulting love magic had attacked Haggar's magic in some way and destabilised her robeasts. They certainly wouldn't complain, as it gave them something close to peace on Planet Arus. Peace that they cherished and would defend it with all their might.

Soul bonds became common for Arusian marriages over time. Nobody ever figured out what caused it, not even Haggar. She never remembered what she did during her drunken night. Nobody ever figured out that the bunnaries would multiply themselves in some way, whenever they spotted two young people that they felt would make a great couple. It would become one of the huge mysteries of the universe that would never be solved. But, honestly, nobody cared much about it. After all, no harm was done, right?

* * *

 **I hope you liked it.**


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